Probe stalls transfer of Ratan Tata’s Tata Sons shares to his foundations

The investigation stems from a complaint in May 2026 by Sunil Patilkhede—through his lawyer Katyayani Agrawal—that 833 equity shares of Tata Sons were transferred in 1989 from the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust to Naval H. Tata, without proper consideration, trustee approval, or valid documentation.

Those shares were later inherited by his sons Ratan Tata, Noel Tata (chairman of Tata Trusts), and Jimmy Tata. Mint independently could not ascertain how many of the 833 shares Ratan Tata inherited from his father.

Following the legal notice, former defence secretary Vijay Singh asked the Maharashtra charity commissioner to investigate the claims about this 37-year-old share transfer.

Tata Trusts had dismissed the allegations in its response before the Maharashtra charity commissioner on 5 June.

“It is affirmed that the transaction was lawful, undertaken for consideration, and fully compliant with the rules in force at that point of time. It was cleared at the appropriate levels, including by the late Mr Nani A. Palkhivala, one of the country’s most distinguished lawyers, and approved by the then Board of Tata Sons. The transfer of shares was effected on a valid transfer form duly stamped by the Registrar of Companies,” Tata Trusts said in a statement dated 5 June.

In an email response to Mint, Mehli Mistry, one of the executors of Tata’s will, said everything would be undertaken as per legal process and the wishes of the late Ratan Tata.

“In so far as the allegations are concerned about the Tata Sons shares, I am not aware of any such illegality yet,” he said.

The charity commissioner has yet to pronounce its verdict on this complaint, even as it has asked Sir Ratan Tata Trust, one of the two principal Tata Trusts, not to undertake any meetings after another complaint over the board composition.

Calls and text messages to the charity commissioner, Amogh Kaloti, seeking comment went unanswered.

The background

Ratan Tata had set up RTEF and RTET before he passed away on 9 October 2024, and had sought the 3,368 Tata Sons shares to be equally given to the two entities.

RTEF counts Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, former Tata Group executive Raghavan Shastri, and another former Trust employee Burzis Taraporevala as board members. The foundation has no members from the Tata family.

RTET has Noel Tata, Shireen and Deanna, former Citibank India employee Pramit Jhaveri, Shastri and Jamsheed Poncha, a senior executive at Tata Sons.

These Tata Sons shares were part of nearly ₹10,000 crore in wealth that Ratan Tata had sought to give to friends and family members.

Many of his financial assets, including fixed deposits from banks and luxury watches and paintings, were given to his half-sisters Shireen and Deanna. A former employee, Mohini M. Dutta, got about ₹200 crore from Tata’s will.

Ratan Tata also left 25% of his share of the Juhu-based bungalow to his brother, Jimmy Naval Tata, and the Alibaug property and three firearms to Mehli Mistry.

Until the charity commissioner rules on the complaint, the transfer of Tata Sons shares remains the only part of Ratan Tata’s will that is held up.

Varun Sood

Varun Sood has been a business journalist writing on corporate affairs for the past 17 years. He currently oversees corporate coverage, including information technology (IT) services, aviation, auto, metals and mining, and conglomerates at Mint. He started as a reporter at Business Standard in 2005, after a short internship at the Economic and Political Weekly. Having worked across newsrooms in Delhi and Mumbai, including at DNA, the Financial Times, and the Economic Times, he is now based in Bengaluru. He is most proud of his work over the last decade at Mint, including writing about the rise and fall of some CEOs at Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, and Wipro. His first book, “Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions”, was published by HarperCollins in October 2020. These days, he is spending more time reading annual reports and analysts' transcripts. Varun’s two pet peeves are access journalism and the dying art of interviews with business leaders. If you think there is something wrong inside your company or there are problems with corporate governance that you'd like to highlight, email him at varun.sood@livemint.com.

Satish John

Satish John serves as the Managing Editor at Mint, bringing over 30 years of experience in business journalism. He began his career in 1996 as a reporter at the Telegraph after a brief stint in the corporate sector. During his three decades of journalism, Satish has written on almost all sectors, including conglomerates, power, metals and mining, aviation and auto. Before joining Mint in 2022 (this is his second stint with the paper after earlier working from 2008 to 2011), Satish worked at The Economic Times and DNA. At Mint, Satish oversees the corporate, banking and markets coverage. One of his key roles is to manage news reporting teams and ensure their coordination across cities. The other important role he plays is in helping the paper get big news scoops and stories. His colleagues say he is a great raconteur and always has some interesting stories about promoters and companies. These days, Satish is exploring podcasts and AI tools to better tell stories and reach a wider audience. Inside the newsroom, reporters and editors continue to ideate with Satish to better their stories.